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Stubborn Camels

Here’s something you probably didn’t know: camels were domesticated by frankincense traders to make the long journey from Southern Arabia to the Middle East, a distance of about 900 miles! Job 16:13 uses the term “gall” to mean “that which is bitter.” And these camels, despite their ability to travel long distances and carry heavy loads, were sick of the journey! They laid down and, as their famous stubborn nature implies, simply refused to move. The Biblical account of the Magi does not mention that they traveled on camels.

I can relate, however, to Eliot’s description of the camels as being “sore-footed.” After nineteen years of caring for an ill spouse and more hospitalizations and surgeries than I care to remember, I was “sore-footed” in those last months before my husband died. In a word, exhausted. Like the camels, I wanted to just lay down—probably not in the snow—and call it a day. But unlike the camels, I knew that I needed to finish my journey as a wife because of the promise I had made at the altar.

REFLECTION: There were many times during the years of Ron’s illness when I just wanted to lay down and quit. Have you ever wanted to give up, even though you—unlike the camels—knew your journey was worthwhile?

 

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2 thoughts on “Stubborn Camels

  1. Yes, I know exactly what you refer to.
    I am in the whirlwind of that journey myself. Being a caregiver, it seems to me, is not as much a test of one’s love for another, but a physical and emotional course of super human stamina. Is it worth it? Absolutely.
    I look back over the past 12 years, since my husband’s heart transplant, and I marvel at the strength God gas given me for him. As we begin the twilight season of his journey, I pray God increases my compassion and intuitive understanding which will keep me strong.

    1. Dear Sandy, I will pray for you as your journey continues. I now look back at the almost twenty years I cared for Ron and marvel at the incredible srength God gave me–both physical and emotional–to see the journey to the end.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Linda Cobourn

Linda Cobourn picked up a pencil when she was nine and hasn’t stopped writing since, but she never expected to write about adult autism and grief. When her husband died after a long illness, she began a remarkable journey of faith with her son, an adult with Asperger’s syndrome. The author of Tap Dancing in Church, Crazy: A Diary, and Scenes from a Quirky Life, she holds an MEd in Reading and an EdD in Literacy. Dr. Cobourn also writes for Aspirations, a newsletter for parents of autistic offspring. Her work in progress, tentatively titled Finding Dad: A Journey of Faith on the Autism Spectrum, chronicles her son’s unique grief journey. Dr Cobourn teaches English as a Second Language in Philadelphia and lives with her son and a fat cat named Butterscotch in Delaware County. She can be contacted on her blog, Quirky, and her Amazon author page. 

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